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| Colombia Peace Presence Update, May 2004 In this Update: Fourth Inzá Women's
Gathering Ruta Pacífica de las Mujeres More than 2000 women came together in Turminá, Tierradentro for the fourth Inzá-region women's gathering. On April 25, at the end of their meeting, they released a public declaration in which they protested ongoing militarization in their region in the southeastern department of Cauca and its negative effects on the civilian population. They reported that since 2002, the military has occupied parts of community buildings and schools in different municipalities, placing community leaders and children at risk of becoming military targets. The declaration also stated that the army constantly pressures community leaders, branding them as guerrilla collaborators, as a result of which some of them are forced to flee. According to the declaration, the close proximity of the police station to the hospital in the municipality of Páez constitutes a serious threat to the civilians using the medical services. The women's demands in light of this situation
included respect for international humanitarian law and human
rights from all armed factions involved in the conflict
in the region. The women declared that they will promote nonviolent
resistance to the war, to the current economic model and to globalization
by working for food sovereignty, the preservation of their
cultural values, solidarity, and social organizing. They stated
that this gathering allowed them to share their experiences
and ancestral knowledge, which contribute to the construction
of real forms of resistance. They acknowledged their differences
and strengthened their identities as campesino or indigenous
women. Their understanding is that peace and security will
be accomplished through increased government presence with
investments in health and education for the children and not
with more military presence and arms sales. The declaration was signed by five women's organizations: COMITÉ MUNICIPAL DE MUJERES POR INZÁ.
Jana Silverman, Colombia Week Nationwide protests against U.S.-Andean trade negotiations included a May 18 public-sector strike organized by Colombia's major union federations. The unions estimate the strike was honored by more than 500,000 workers, including 300,000 members of the Colombian Educators Federation (Fecode), the nation's largest union. They say opening markets will chip away at hard-won salary and benefit improvements. "Subcontracting of labor in public services companies will increase," Carlos Posada, president of the public employee union Sintraemdes, said by telephone from his Medellín office. "Already, subcontracted workers in the sector can legally earn less than the minimum wage. It'll force all wages down, increasing the country's poverty." Posada added that the Uribe administration wants a trade accord to help "flexibilize" jobs, changing them to part-time posts with irregular hours, something public-sector unions have largely staved off. And the unions say a U.S. pact will hike prices for water, electricity and telecommunications. "This has already happened in Cartagena, where prices rose 23 percent after the public services company was sold to a Spanish multinational corporation," Posada said. "It's the consumers who will suffer." Concerns about job security and benefits have already led Sintraemdes members to begin a strike at the Cartagena water company, where they had been working without a contract since January. Posada says the U.S. trade talks have emboldened management to refuse union demands. Unions led nationwide marches May 18 and are planning more protests as the talks continue. "To defend our jobs and national sovereignty," Posada said, "we need to look for inspiration in countries like Bolivia, where unions and popular organizations stayed out in the streets and were able to bring down an unpopular government that was pushing unfair policies that were very similar to what Uribe is implementing here in Colombia."
US Office on Colombia On April 25, in an interview in the Spanish newspaper El Pais, Father Javier Giraldo [Colombian human rights defender] reports that President Uribe Velez is “paramilitarizing" Colombian society through Democratic Security policies and by involving civilians in the network of informers. Mr. Giraldo has been awarded the Basque decoration “Juan Maria Bandres Peace Prize" for his work on human rights with victims of violence in Colombia. An article in the Miami Herald on April 26 reports how Juan Carlos Cano, a young Colombian taxi driver, has been in hiding for the last year and is now a key witness in the case against the authorities involved in “Operation Orion" in the Comuna 13 in Medellín. He recently showed his face to the entire nation, telling the Colombian Congress that he witnessed two investigators for the Colombian Attorney General's Office help to murder and mutilate people suspected of being leftist guerrillas. According to Cano, the investigators helped the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) to ``disappear people'' after the army and police swept into his guerrilla-dominated neighborhood in late 2002. At least 45 of his neighbors have not been seen since.
Host the Photography Exhibit Resistance Unarmed: Colombian Communities Building Alternatives to War We still have dates available for hosting our exciting exposition exploring communities in nonviolent resistance in the context of a country torn by political and social violence and war. As part of the our ongoing commitment to supporting nonviolent solutions to Colombia's civil war, we are developing a photography exhibit that lifts up and makes visible the struggles of four communities in nonviolent resistance. The exhibit will also challenge people to reexamine their understanding of the situation in Colombia and inspire them to be in solidarity with Colombians working for peace. We invite you to book dates for showing the exhibit in your community (two weeks to a month). We project the exhibit will be available by July 1st. For more information contact Gilberto at 415 495 6334, Fax: 415 495 5628 or <gilberto@igc.org>. Bomb
Explosion in Apartadó
By Curt Wands, volunteer health care worker May 23, 2004, 4:00 am Apartadó, Colombia It is silent right now, except for the crickets, a rare occurrence in this city of 80,000. Normally all-too-loud music plays into the Saturday night as people dance in this city. That all ended abruptly at 10:00 PM when the bomb went off in our town center. I felt my room vibrate and the lights briefly flickered off. I knew. Within minutes, sirens were wailing, the few ambulances in this city racing to the site of what had been a disco. I put on my clothes, grabbed my medical bag and headed to the hospital. I have no official standing there, but I also know that at times like this, all help is gladly accepted. It is now six hours since the blast. As I left the hospital a few minutes ago, the operating room was being mopped and cleaned after we left it flooded with blood, water, soap, packages from sterile bandaging, and the leftovers of trauma, including the body parts too horrific to write about. Triage is a cold word to describe the rapid decision made to place injured people into order at moments of crisis and mass casualties. Patients are placed into one of three groups: those whose wounds can wait, those whose wounds are too serious to survive, and those who might survive if their wounds receive immediate attention. The young woman with a light scalp laceration can wait. What is left of the person who was nearer the blast will receive no further attention. She is declared dead on arrival. I begin working with a surgeon, an anesthesiologist, and two nurses on an Afro-Colombian woman, in her 30's. I did not get to learn her name tonight or learn anything about what brought her to the disco. She was unconscious on arrival and most of her clothing burned or blown off. There was no identification and her relatives may be one of any of the hundreds outside the hospital gate, or perhaps another of the victims. Her burns, mostly 2nd and 3rd degree, cover 30% of her body surface. The charred stench is still in my nose from breathing it in through the surgical mask. (Š) She might survive if infection does not set in. Unfortunately we ran out of silver sulfdiazine, the most common anti-infective agent used in burn victims, before we finished covering all her burns. We were informed that due to the volume of patients, there is no silver sulfdiazine left in the city tonight. This woman will not look the same, walk the same, or be the same when she awakens. No one in the operating room referred to anything but the need to save the patient in front of us at the moment. When finishing with one, another is started. People in that room were dedicated to one objective, saving lives. For those who think of Colombia, or Iraq, or Afghanistan as places where people love war, this other side needs to shine through. I was to have been sound asleep right now. The day had already been long, including a two-hour wild gallop on horseback down a 2000 foot mountain (NOT something I recommend to those who have not ridden a horse for the past several years.) The last jeep to leave the village of San Jose Apartadó was to depart at 6:00 PM and I had to catch up with it before it left town. If our 34-year-old patient did not make it to the hospital tonight she, and her baby attempting to be born, might not make it. Behind me were 10 men half-trotting, half-running down the same mountainside, taking turns carrying this pregnant woman in a hammock slung under a pole. All had volunteered at a moment's notice and would return up the mountainside as soon as our jeep left. I made it to town just as the jeep was preparing to pull out. The driver waited for our patient, and amazingly, only minutes later the team portaging the woman arrived. Her blood pressure was now dangerously high, the reason for this frantic rush. Another hour and a half later we were in the hospital of Apartadó. The 23-year-old Franciscan Catholic nun and nurse who had requested my support in the hills above La Unión faithfully accompanied the patient until we were certain of her admission in the hospital. As we left, the M.D. who was taking over her case noted how "tranquil the night had been." There are millions who wish an end for war in this country. There are hundreds of thousands who work in health, education and public works here who work for life-giving options in the midst of the worst of war. I know that they would express their great thanks to each of you, as do I, as you continue in a myriad of ways to stop the destruction, injury and death of war, and to bring an end to the evils of violence. Now we have 4 more dead and over 30 injured from a bombing that will make almost no sense other than to see the cycle of violence continue. Tonight there is an increase in anger, an increase in pain, an increase in destruction. Yet, there are more Colombians who are opposed to war than Colombians who participate in it. I hope to say the same of our people in the U.S. It is time for sleep now. I can rest, recalling that we who strive for peace are the majority. We just need to make our voices heard and felt. My deepest thanks to each of you who strive to make this world a place of constructive growth rather than destructive harm. ***
You can help by: 1. Signing the Latin American Working Group Petition at: http://www.lawg.org/tools/petition.htm 2. Providing dramatically needed funding for our medical work and training through Concern America: concamerinc@earthlink.net 3. Providing accompaniment, development, or health work in Colombia
through Non-Governmental Organizations. Contact: 4. Working to close the School of the Americas by contacting SOA Watch: http://www.SOAW.org 5. Keep our teams and all the people in Colombia in your prayers, meditations and thoughts. To read Curt's full letter, please go to www:/http://home.igc.org/~cwands/ ***
In Peace
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©2004 Fellowship of Reconciliation |